Cheese please!

The Tillemann-Dick family has a thing for cheese. We just really like it - and seem to eat it all the time. Over spring break I decided to put together a few cheese boards for a little gathering we had at our house. The results were good. Really good. So I thought I'd share : )

Whenever I contemplate a cheese board (<--a great activity, by the way), I like to find something to put on the crackers/bread which isn't cheese. Golden syrup, tapenade, chutney, jam, pesto, and honey all work well!

I love Goat Cheese, but sometimes it's a little bland on its own. I like to roast nuts (almonds, pistachios, pine nute - you name it!) and press them onto the outside of the log. It tastes wonderful and makes the cheese board look a little more interesting, too.

I also like to add extra things to nibble on. A little ramekin filled with (in our case vegan) smoked apple sage sausage is always a hit. Dried fruit is a wonderful addition, too!

As are roasted hazelnuts and pistachios.

Sharp Asiago, Mild Jarlsberg, Soft Golden Syrup, Rich Dates, Irish Cheddar with Porter Beer, Smooth Goat Cheese with Roasted Almond Crust.

Like Goat Cheese, Brie is a wonderful cheese to dress up. For this one Glorianna roasted some pecans in brown sugar and butter and poured them on top.

Yum.

Raspberry curd was a new discovery for us. It. is. amazing. And extra delicious with the Candied Pecan Brie.

I think the best cheese boards have a variety of colors, textures, shapes and sharpness - and allow for a bunch of different combinations. But, if you like what you're putting on the plate, you really can't go wrong! 

It's A Beautiful Thing.

Monday was a much harder day for hundreds of thousands of people than it was for me. But the Boston Bombing left me shaken, distracted and hopeful. I think we all want to help, We all want to heal. We all want closure. But for me, I don't think that healing will come from following the news or twitter. It comes from running into the chaos. Where I am, that doesn't have to do with running into any literal explosion. It means finding meaningful opportunities to serve someone who is lonely, someone who is in need, who is poor in spirit, who is hungry or sick. There are people lying in my figurative street and I can help. They're our sisters and brothers, our family and friends, our neighbors and classmates and strangers. They're all around us. Our victory comes when there is darkness and we make light. When there is hatred and we show love. Where there is winter and we find spring. 

And maybe this week, we do it wearing a pair of red socks.

The Important Stuff

A couple weeks ago, far too early for this bone tired mama clinging to every wisp of never-enough sleep, Hettie let herself into our bedroom. Usually such unscheduled visits involve demands for weird non-breakfast foods, or confessions of early morning incidents requiring immediate parental attention. And bleach.

On this morning, however, Hettie surveyed her supine parents and gently crept toward the bed. Curled on my side, one arm draped over the old rainbow quilt, I pretended to sleep and hoped she'd lose interest in whatever had driven her from bed before the sun. Quietly, diligently, bizarrely, I felt her delicate little fingers poking and smoothing something across my exposed skin. After a few moments, curiosity triumphed over my desire for more sleep. I cracked an eye and saw my determined four-year-old with a pad of Post-it flags, adorning my arm with bright blue banners, like noble pennon littering a tiny battlefield.

Groggy and bemused by the unusual predawn art project, I spoke. "What are you doing? Where did you find those?"

Matter-of-factly, she explained, "Aunt Liberty gave them to me. You put them on things to remind you they're important. I already got Phin and Willa." Smiling, she clambered across the bed to tag her father.

This was one of those rare moments when I realized, in the moment, how sweet that moment really was. I took a picture.

I spend a lot of days feeling silly at how overwhelming the sock-pairing and dish washing and peanut butter sandwich crust-trimming can seem over here. But on mornings like that, or nights like this, I can't help but be grateful for my Important Stuff: the sweet perfection of my children, the love of my husband, the innumerable bounty of peace and health and freedom which silently marks our days. Life is full of unexpected blessings, and unexpected tragedies. My resolution on this sad day is to bask in the expected things, treasure the everyday, let my Important Stuff know more often how important they are, and reflect more radiantly and universally the daily warming glow of Transcendent Love. 

Smiles are the best medicine

Spring has sprung!

The sun visited New Haven this week (finally)! And, while I'm not usually a sucker for warm weather, I've fallen hard for spring this year. Not needing to wear tights is so foreign, and so very welcome. As is sitting outside and reading on a sun warmed bench,

choosing

to take the long way to class, and eating an ice cream  cone in the fresh night air. I find myself appreciating Yale’s campus so much more than I do when it’s cold. I noticed so many new, wonderful things this week which I had never seen during my chilly jaunts around New Haven. Everything is just so much more beautiful when the stinging wind isn’t distracting you! We took these on the way to church on Sunday. Glorianna didn't *really* want to be photographed, but the weather was so lovely - it had to be documented!

Today I was trying to decide whether I would post on feminism, threading or vegan chocolate mousse... really.

And after a day of entertaining, writing, interviews and eating the mousse, I decided between Sheryl Sandberg, Anne Marie Slaughter (side note: congratulations on the New America Foundation, Ms. Slaughter) and Susan Patton, there was enough feminism in the news this week.  Threading was just too painful. So I would take on the issue that will make any woman want to lean in: Chocolate. And not just any chocolate, a truly miraculous dark chocolate mousse, introduced to me by New York Times food writer, Melissa Clark. Like we women often do, when Ms. Clark arrived on the NYT food video scene to commandeer join Mark Bittman, I didn't want to like her. He was so quirky, so entertaining, so causal with his cooking -- dare I say, Tillemann-Dick-like in his kitchen habits that I just wanted him to stay there forever. I saw Ms. Clark as an interloper. And she's not Marc Bittman. She doesn't want to be. She focuses on basic technique, favorite recipes and professional tricks of the trade that can help any cook be better. So after some growing pains, I have decided that I like Ms. Clark quite a lot. This recipe might have moved me to unadulterated love. It comes from a French gastronome it-boy. I changed a few specifics, but you can't go wrong. Yoni and I made it Monday but ate it tonight for one of my best friend's birthdays.

I love me a good mousse.

Equal parts water and dark chocolate.
1 tbsp vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste.

Place equal parts dark chocolate (I use a mix of two kinds -- 50 and 72% dark chocolate. Use a little more chocolate than water if you want to be sure your mousse will thicken.) and water in metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Wisk water and chocolate until they melt together -- it should look like a very dark hot chocolate. Prepare an ice bath in a second bowl. When chocolate and water have melted together and are smooth, place bowl in ice bath and whisk mixture for three to five minutes. When mixture is thick,  whisk in vanilla. Either serve immediately or place in container and refrigerate overnight. I would recommend the second option. It allows the mousse to set and the consistency and flavor is significantly better -- it's almost like a pot de creme. Serve with fleur de sel or on it's own. You can also serve it with roasted hazelnuts  almonds, bananas, raspberries, sour cherries or strawberries. It's so good no matter who's feminist  dogma your guests are or aren't into, they'll be totally into you and your spectacular dessert.

Brownie Bites, Caramelized Bananas and Whipped Cream with mousse aren't necessary, but it's darn good.

Sometimes I tend toward hyperbole...

But I actually don't think it's the slightest exaggeration to call these The Best Macaroons Ever. I planned to whip up a batch of the flourless wonders for our Passover feast, but we made such decadent dinner foods, we decided to table any thoughts of dessert. So, when our family paddle boat picnic finally presented the perfect excuse for cookies, I'd had an extra week or two to dream about what might make one of my very favorites even better. I pulled out the classic recipe and turned the volume WAY up. Generally, I shun anything that requires more than one bowl, (whoever heard of two-bowl cookies?! How pretentious. Sheesh...). But the payoff for beating those egg whites is a fluffy, crunchy, gooey piece of awesome, studded with tart cherries, dark chocolate, and salty Spanish almonds. What can I say? I'm a believer.

Recipe after the jump!

Best Ever Macaroons

In a large bowl, stir together:

-a 14 oz bag of sweetened coconut

-a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

-a healthy splash of vanilla

-1/2 cup or so of dried Montmorency cherries (or another very tart variety)

-a generous handful of toasted, salted Marcona almonds

-half a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips (like Ghirardelli 65% cocoa)

Set aside your bejeweled coconut goo, and whip to stiff peaks:

-2 large egg whites

-1/4 tsp Kosher salt

Very gently, fold the two concoctions together. Drop heaping tablespoons of the batter onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets, and pop them in the oven at 325* for about 20 minutes, until the tips of stray coconut curls just turn gold.

Given the size of our picnic party, I made a double recipe and left some of them naked. The plain ones were really good, but, compared to their loaded compatriots... plain. I'll definitely double the batch again, but next time, I'll make them all crazy.